Abstract

This paper argues that, as the church lives in a world that is experiencing rapid technological changes, especially AI, she will be presented with both an opportunity for rapid growth and a risk of adulteration of her orthodoxy and orthopraxis. It peeps into the future to envisage how church programs should be reinvented to take advantage of the opportunity and overcome the threats and challenges posed by the increase in information and its availability through AI. From her inception on the day of Pentecost, the church has existed through changing contexts. First, she existed in an oral context before her faith was preserved in scripture. Her faith, theology, and creed were first encoded, propagated and preserved in administering its two ordinances—Baptism and the Lord’s supper (Acts 2:42). Later, her redemptive event was narrated in the four gospels. Her formative history was written in the Acts of the Apostles. Her theology was written in the Epistles. Her experience in the unfolding history, her hopes and aspirations, were revealed and simulated in the visions narrated in Revelation. The flowering of this scripture repository (later called the Bible) was enhanced and fortified by the Renaissance after the discovery of the printing press. However crude these modes of transmission and repository were, they were forms of technology. As the church exists within the current fast-technologically driven civilisation, she must jealously guard her faith from adulteration through heresies that are more easily peddled through the readily available media outlets. She must also take advantage of the emerging technologies to reinvent herself to lead and serve in the historical situation where civilization is being driven by artificial intelligence. For example, COVID-19 restrictions accelerated the introduction of the digital church. Though this church concept poses a challenge in fostering an intimate fellowship with God and one another, it is here to stay. It should be reinvented to enable the church to serve its members more efficiently.